Ash baseball bats are the most popular material used

Ash baseball bats have been around since the beginning of the game in the 1850's. The majority of wood baseball bats today are made from northern white ash harvested from Pennsylvania and upstate New York.

White ash is used because of it's hardness, durability, strength, weight and "feel". Trees that provide the lumber for baseball bats are often 50 years old, and of all the lumber harvested - the top 10% is saved for pro bats.

When players think of a wood bat, images of a splintering bat heading for first base come to mind. That’sbecause ash, a softer, lighter, more porous wood than maple, was traditionally used in making wood bats.

Ash bats not only have a tendency to splinter during play, they also dent and chafe from repeated use, making it difficult to get a uniform hit consistently.

The quality of an ash baseball bat is determined mostly by the grain count in the wood. Southern Ash grows too quickly and is not as dense.

A higher quality ash bat will be made of wood with fewer growth rings, places where a bat would most likely split. This makes trying to produce uniform bats of the same size, weight and quality difficult.

Major League grade is of course, the best and is also in short supply. Most of what you see that's labeled or sold as Pro-Stock or some similar name is actually Minor League wood or a lesser grade and generally is found for around $40.

Of course, there are other levels of quality. They are known by grades called high school, trophy and retail (don't expect to see the grades labeled).

Generally, they are not of very good quality and only worth purchasing if money is an issue. But if you're on a tight budget, it is still better than not having any wood at all.

ASH VS MAPLE

The great debate over which wood is best. This will be for you to decide. Here are the facts as we see them. The choice is ultimately yours.

Maple is a very hard, dense wood. The surface hardness is about 20% greater than ash. The harder the surface the faster the ball will jump off the bat.

This is one of the reasons you have seen maple become very popular. That and Barry Bonds swings maple. Maple is also a closer grained hard wood. With maple you don't see the grain like you do with ash.

With maple the grain straightness doesn't matter like it does with ash. Maple will not splinter like ash. The grain will not separate like ash will. Maple being harder doesn't have much flex to it.

Ash on the other hand does flex. When a ball is hit with ash there is a trampoline affect. The ball doesn't just jump off, it first compresses the wood, then like a spring board it leaves with more force than maple.

This spring board affect is one of ash's greatest strengths and weeknesses. This spring board and compression will in time cause the grains to separate.

Because of this flex ash baseball bats will appear to have a larger sweet spot. Ash bats also do not snap the way a maple bat does. They will break just as easy, but usually wear out. The grain will delaminate over many uses.

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